CHICAGO – It’s getting difficult to find any “good guys” in the never-ending soap opera that is Chicago Public Schools.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that school investigators “yanked” elementary students out of their classroom last week to interrogate them about why they didn’t take the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) earlier this month.

CPS investigators wanted to hear from students if their decision to not take the state-mandated ISAT was influenced by their teachers, the Sun-Times reports.

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The reason for the question was simple: Teachers at two Chicago elementary schools boycotted the ISAT on the grounds that the test is unnecessary, as it is being replaced by another test next year and is no longer a factor in determining “student promotion, graduation, or enrollment in selective-enrollment schools,” CBS Chicago reports.

Hundreds of parents agreed with the teachers and opted their children out of the exam.

Regardless of the protests, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials still take the ISAT very seriously, largely because schools that don’t administer it could lose state funding.

CPS officials warned the rebellious teachers they’d face serious consequences for undercutting the district’s position on the issue, which is why the investigators were questioning students last week.

The investigators’ motives may have been defensible, but their techniques were not, if the Sun-Times account is to be believed.

According to the paper, parents were not given any notice that their children might be removed from class to be interviewed by investigators. That’s inexcusable and indefensible.

District leaders are quick to point out that investigators only spoke with students who agreed to talk with them. But that’s not good enough. As one mom pointed out, children are often willing to help adults.

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Nor can children comprehend the consequences of their decision.

One anonymous mom says her daughter happily agreed to speak with CPS officials, but is now experiencing anxiety after realizing she may have said something that could get her teacher fired.

“The truth is, her teacher did not opt my daughter out of the exam. I opted her out. If they wanted to question someone, they should talk to me,” the anonymous parent told the Sun-Times.

It gets worse.

The Sun-Times also reports that “several of the children told teachers after the interrogations that several questions were followed up by: ‘Are you sure? Are you lying?’”

We’d like to ask CPS officials: Are you dumb? How can you not see that such tactics play right into the Chicago Teachers Union leaders’ hands?

Union officials can now credibly say that CPS officials are scaring children in an effort to intimidate and harass educators.

In other words, district leaders just gave union leaders millions of dollars worth of free, favorable publicity.

CPS spokesman Joel Hood is defending the interrogations by saying that investigators didn’t do anything illegal.

That’s all well and good, but it’s a moot point. The bottom line is that CPS leaders have handled this situation about as clumsily as possible. And by doing so, they’ve managed to make the far-left union activists appear sympathetic to the community.

One teacher called the investigation “a witch hunt.” Unfortunately, a lot of ordinary Chicago residents are likely to agree with that characterization.

The Chicago Teachers Union is one of the greediest and most selfish labor groups in the country. But thanks to the bunglers at CPS headquarters, the union leaders suddenly appear the victims instead of the victimizers.

What a colossal blunder.